Cummings gets early present

Australia's master trainer Bart Cummings received an early 81st birthday present when the unfancied Viewed provided him with his 12th Melbourne Cup victory at Flemington racecourse yesterday.

Viewed, who started at odds of nearly 50-1, held off fast-finishing British entrant Bauer to win by a nose in one of the closest finishes in the 148-year history of Australia's most famous race.

The locally-prepared C'Est La Guerre finished third, two lengths adrift, while British-trained favourite Mad Rush faded to come seventh.

Cummings, who turns 81 on Nov. 14, won his first Melbourne Cup in 1965 and his previous one in 1999.

This year marked the 50th anniversary of his first runner in the gruelling 3,200m handicap that "stops the nation" and his victory was his 250th at Group One level.

"It's nice to win a race like this, a race that everyone in Australia likes to win particularly my owners," Cummings said in a televised interview.

"I thought it was all over in the last 50 yards, then I thought I wasn't sure. It just happens to be a nice win."

Much of the pre-race talk had been of the challenge for the A$5.5 million race from European horses, particularly in the strong Irish presence headed by Aidan O'Brien's Septimus, Alessandro Volta and Honolulu.

The Irish raiders appeared to be living up to their pre-race hype with all three sharing the lead for the first 2,400 metres.

Septimus, who was only confirmed for entry earlier in the day after O'Brien inspected the track to see if it had softened, led down the home straight for the first pass before Alessandro Volta took the lead.

The four-year-old colt led down the entire back straight at breakneck speed before Honolulu hit the front, closely followed by Septimus and Boundless, with 800 metres to run.

The leading trio were four lengths clear and top weight Septimus, Europe's leading stayer, seemingly had an opportunity to become the third Irish horse after Vintage Crop (1993) and Media Puzzle (2002) to snatch Australasia's richest race.

The field, however, narrowed the gap around the final turn and Viewed surged into a three-length lead before Corey Brown steered Bauer to an outside line and hauled in the five-year-old with every stride before just missing out on victory.

C'Est La Guerre was a further two lengths back, Septimus finished 18th, Alessandro Volta 20th and Honolulu 21st of the 22 runners.